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This case focuses on an issue unsettled since 1975: the status of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. In January 2009, most of the territory was occupied and administered by Morocco but the Polisario Front ran what it claimed to be the legitimate government from a refugee camp in Algeria. Calls from the United Nations and the African Union for a referendum on the situation had met with broken promises from both Spain and Morocco, with voter eligibility one of the main sticking points. Talks held as recently as 2008 had failed to find a solution. Christopher Ross, the new Special Envoy for the United Nations Secretary General, was in January 2009 tasked with forging a path to a settlement to which all parties could agree.